Abstract
Organisational stability is a fundamental constituent of an enterprise, which is critical for the optimum existence of any state-owned entity (SOE). In recent years, many of South Africa's major SOEs have been impaired by unstable governance structures, particularly the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position. Citizens as primary stakeholders have witnessed the massive and abrupt turnover of CEOs in critical Schedule 2 and 3B enterprises such as Denel, Eskom, Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), South African Airways (SAA), South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and Transnet. This undesirable turnover has led to a state of affairs where boards and senior management of these SOEs deviate from the core production and service delivery mandate to constantly focus on the management of instabilities because of high CEO turnover. This article principally examines the ramifications of CEO's high and abrupt turnover across major South African SOEs. To arrive at the ramifications of the abrupt turnover, this article deliberates on the theoretical underpinning of the study, the roles of CEOs, factors influencing high CEO turnover in SOEs, and the possible course of action to remedy this. For the purpose of this article, the authors employed triangulation of various unobtrusive research methods and techniques. The methodological approach applied is qualitative desktop analysis through an intensive literature review where information produced has been scrutinised through categorisa-tion, intellectual analysis, integration and reflection.